Local Senate Development of Joint Agreement with Administration: Suggestions for Implementation of Rerform

The community college reform legislation, Assembly Bill 1725, mandates strengthening the role of senates in the local governance process and provides the basis for that strengthened role by calling for joint agreement between senates and representatives of the local governing boards on a variety of issues such as hiring procedures, procedures for determining equivalent qualifications for hire and for tenure, and procedures for implementing the administrator retreat rights to probationary faculty status. This new responsibility for senates to work with district representatives may call for changes in the way some senates interact with their local trustees or administrators, and the material that follows is intended to facilitate the move toward a more active role for local senates in shared governance as the reforms of AB 1725 become reality.